Belinea 10 17 35
Belinea products are mainly available in Europe. We have however included them to this test as it is possible to buy them in European shops and because they bring a considerable technological improvement. Also if these screens are the first equipped with the 13 ms CMO panel they won’t be the last.
This screen was a nice surprise. Here we finally have a competitor for our panel of reference, the Hydis 20ms that has been everyone’s favorite for two years now. Normally, when a screen pulls ahead of the pack we don’t expect such a good result. For Belinea, this screen is a mid-range monitor with a panel that isn’t necessarily supposed to impress gamers. The manufacturer tends to concentrate on ergonmics, such as the pivot mode or the speakers. You may be happy to hear that this screen, which doesn’t particularly stand out in other ways, is our new screen of reference in terms of power. It’s a perfect monitor for the most demanding gamers and has well thought out ergonomics.
It’s vertically adjustable, the transformer sector is integrated, and the pivot mode could prove useful.
Color qualityIn addition to our initial enthousiasm we noticed the overall good color quality even before the colorimetry test. To the human eye there were many luminous and pleasant colors in games and in office type use. The only reservation was that whites were a little too bright.
How to interpret the graph ? The X axis is 0 to 100, 0 is black and 100 is white.
When Delta E > 3 the desired colors is noticeably different from the one on the screen.
When 1 < Delta E < 2 colors are accurate. When Delta E < 1 the result is perfect.
The probe confirms our above impressions and goes even further. Not only are colors pleasant, but they are perfectly accurate. This screen is as good in this respect as the newest generation of PVAs. Just out of curiosity we wanted to test this screen at a color temperature of 5000k, however, it is not really up to meet this challenge. The OSD menu is maybe a little too basic, because it doesn’t offer any pre-set color temperature. You just have to be happy with a normal, more blue or more red display. “Redish” with a lowered contrast and luminosity gave a good result, or rather better than average, but it could have benefited from a more detailed OSD.
 | Here we have the Belinea’s color spectrum compared to a Mitsubishi CRT
Just like the Liyama in this test, the 10 17 35 goes farther than the CRT in reds and less in greens. |
Viewing angles
You can tell just by looking at this screen that its equipped with a TN + film panel. Its vertical viewing angle is reduced and lateral angles are minimal. Our screen of reference, the famous Liyama AS4314UTG, isn’t the best in this test either, however, it does better than the Belinea when placed side by side. In terms of the vertical angle the Belinea has a slight advantage, but we are still far from IPS and VA panels.
InterpolationRe-sized images isn’t one of this screen’s strong points. Even the Hydis panel has better results in this area. 1024X768 images are acceptable but at 800X600 they become useless. It’s best to stay in this screen’s 1280x1024 standard resolution.
Games
As we explained at the start of this test, the 10 17 35 competes with the AS4314UTG and even surpasses it. There was less remanence, and although it doesn’t reach CRT quality, gamers should be pleased. Compared to screens with Hydis panels, this one has excellent colors and uniform luminosity. If you are looking for a screen for the upcoming Half Life 2 that won’t bankrupt you, this is it.
The 10 17 35 proved to more reactive than the BenQ 8ms, and only one other screen, the new Liyama 10ms, can compare.
Video
This was the only disappointment. Video quality wasn’t good, because of poor viewing angles and a noticeable dithering. You may remember that dithering is a trick on the software level that consists in rapidly moving or blinking pixels in order to give a screen 16 million colors instead of 262000, as is the case with the 10 17 35. The result is a “twinkling” effect more or less noticeable depending on the screen. Here it is quite significant. For more information, see above (
or click here).
VerdictWe have waited a long time for a successor to the Hydis panel. Surprisingly, this panel is available to several manufacturers, including Samsung. I say “surprisingly“ because I expected alot from Samsung’s 16ms (eventually cancelled) and the 12ms. These previous panels show considerable progress but left something to be desired in terms of color quality.
The 10 17 35’s panel is something new. It has the excellent colors of a 12ms and combines this with a better reactivity than the hard-to-find Hydis.
In addition, this screen is well priced and has good ergonomics.
Take a look at this manufacture’s dead pixel policy by clicking here!
